PhD Game

• 

  Departement of mathematics

• 

  Office

Inspiration

As a PhD student in Mathematics, I’ve experienced firsthand the pressure, uncertainty, and occasional absurdity of academic life. I wanted to capture those moments — both serious and humorous — and share them through an interactive, narrative format. The result is PhD Game: a choice-based story where players experience the rollercoaster of pursuing a PhD, one decision at a time.

What it does

PhD Game is a decision-driven narrative game that simulates the life of a mathematics PhD student. Players make choices about how to spend their time: writing papers, meeting supervisors, attending conferences, going abroad for research. The game features multiple endings, including a secret “genius” ending that reflects the rare brilliance found in mathematical research.

How we built it

The game was developed using Arcweave for the creation of the decision tree and GODOT as a game engine.

Challenges we ran into

We run into two main difficulties:

• Capturing the nuance of academic life without overwhelming players with jargon was a big challenge. I also wanted the choices to feel meaningful, which meant a lot of time spent designing branches that reflect the complexity of real academic paths — including burnout, breakthroughs, and everything in between.
• It is my first game, in particular is my first time on GODOT and GDscript, I find it a little challenging and overwhelming

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Building this game taught me a lot and reminded me how powerful games can be for empathy and education, even when the topic is something as niche as a math PhD. I'm also very proud for the result obtained in two weeks of work.

What we learned

Build this game taught me a lot about the GODOT game engine.

What's next for PhD Game

I'd like to expand the game with more branches, and add characters and dialogues. I’m also exploring a visual or mobile version to reach a wider audience.

Built With

• arcweave
• gdscript
• godot